It’s the middle of summer, and that means it’s mosquito season — the time of year those little buggers buzz around and bite you, leaving you with itchy and annoying welts.
How annoying they are, though, varies from person to person. Some folks seem to be attacked by mosquitoes every time they go outside, while others seem immune to the blood-suckers.
Turns out, your body chemistry may have something to do with it.
Download the Straight Arrow app today to get the stories that matter free from manipulation, bias or agenda.™
Point phone camera here
Mosquito species choose hosts based on skin odors
A new study published in iScience found that individual humans are more attractive to certain mosquito species than others, and a person’s skin odor and microbiome may play a role.
As part of the study, Florida International University pitted 119 humans against three mosquito species and found no one person was attractive to all three species. Rather, the study found that each species appeared to have its own preferences, largely driven by an individual’s body chemistry.
Researchers identified differences in the volatile organic compounds found in people’s skin and learned that some chemicals were associated with higher mosquito attraction, while others were more common among people who don’t get bitten as often. The specific patterns varied by species.
For the Asian Tiger mosquito species, which is well established across the Southeast, the Mid-Atlantic, parts of the Midwest, Hawaii, and localized areas of California, researchers found it was associated with the presence of attractive odors.
Specifically, they were attracted to 13 odors that other species were not, several of which derived from plant-like environments.
Meanwhile, the Aedes aegypti species was influenced more by the absence of certain odors. The species also showed a slight preference for men over women — with 91.5% of the mosquitoes attracted to men, while 87.4% were attracted to women.
The southern house species, which feeds primarily after dark, honed in on the microbiome, the microscopic ecosystem of bacteria and fungi naturally living in people’s skin. Researchers found some bacterial families were more attractive to mosquitoes than others.
Where the research goes from here
According to the study, additional research is needed to truly determine what particular bacterium or chemicals directly cause mosquitoes to bite someone.
This study, specifically, just associated a person’s microbiome and odors with mosquito attraction.
However, it noted the initial research and additional findings could eventually help scientists develop new mosquito repellents that manipulate microbes or odors that mosquitoes use to find hosts.
Round out your reading
- All your questions about napping, answered.
- Trump’s $5,000 promise echoes past payouts that never materialized.
- Inside the effort to make data centers pay their share of electricity costs.
- Why did the Feds seize the ’largest Martian meteorite on Earth’?
- Photos and video show exactly where and when Trump visited Ground Zero after 9/11.
